This application is a continuation-in-part of Ser. No. 10/160,931, filed May 31, 2002.
Stuffing sausages with emulsion normally involves pumping emulsion through a hollow stuffing tube towards a discharge end of the tube. A hollow tubular casing material is slidably mounted on the outside of the tube with an otherwise open end extending just beyond the discharge end of the tube. The open end of the casing is then closed in any convenient manner. The emulsion extruded out of the stuffing tube enters the casing which becomes filled, with the pressure on the pumped emulsion slidably moving the casing off of the sleeve. The filled casing is then formed into links through conventional means. This process works well with artificial casings which can be shirred or telescopically compressed so that a casing thirty feet or so in length can be compressed into a shirred condition of slightly more than a foot in length, thus allowing many sausages to be made before a new shirred casing is placed on the tube.
However, in the case of natural casings comprised of the intestines of certain animals, the sausage making process is substantially slowed because the natural casings vary in length and are substantially shorter than artificial casings. As a result, the natural casings have to be replaced at a high frequency, thus creating substantial down time for the machine and casings are filled at a slow frequency.
It is therefore a principal object of this invention to provide a method and means for rapid loading of casing-bearing sleeve on a sausage machine.
A further object of this invention is to provide a method and means for stuffing natural casings with sausage emulsion which will greatly accelerate the stuffing of natural casings by preloading the casings on a quickly positioned sleeve so that the preloaded sleeve can be instantly placed on the primary stuffing tube without manually inserting the natural casing over the end of the stuffing tube, at the time the casing is to be filled, and by mounting a plurality of sleeves on a delivery mechanism for rapid sequential filling of casings one after another.
A still further object of this invention is to provide a convenient arrangement for the sleeve to be automatically removed from the stuffing tube and the delivery system after the natural casing has been filled with emulsion upon leaving the outer surface of the sleeve.
A still further object of the invention is to provide a sleeve carousel that can carry a plurality of preloaded casing sleeves that can individually be movably positioned for filling the casing as soon as the casing on a preceding sleeve has been filled.
A still further object of this invention is to provide a system whereby a sleeve that is free from a casing thereon that has been filled can be easily removed from the machine for further similar use.
Another object of this invention is to provide a method and means for rapid loading of casing-bearing sleeves on a sausage making machine which is economical and efficient to use.
These and other objects will be apparent to those skilled in the art.
A method of stuffing sausage casings with sausage material involves taking a plurality of casings of different lengths; pre-loading each of the casings on elongated hollow open ended sleeves shorter than the casings and having a diameter less than the casings by telescoping the casing on the outer surface of the sleeves; slidably sequentially mounting the sleeves on the open end of a stuffing tube of a sausage making machine via a rapid loading system; extruding emulsion through the stuffing tube into the casing mounted on the sleeve until the casing is slidably removed from the sleeve caused in part by the movement of emulsion entering the casing; removing the sleeve from the stuffing tube; repeating the use of the sleeve by preloading the sleeve with another natural casing; and sequentially filling the casings on the remaining preloaded sleeves with emulsion via the rapid loading system in accordance with the foregoing steps.
A sausage making machine has a frame, an emulsion pump, and a hollow stuffing tube connected to the pump and having a discharge end. A hollow open-ended sleeve is slidably mounted on the stuffing tube and has a discharge end registering with the discharge end of the stuffing tube. The sleeve is preloaded with a length of casing which extends over at least a portion of the length of the sleeve with its end being located just beyond the discharge ends of the stuffing tube and the sleeve. A plurality of casing loaded sleeves are mounted on a rapid delivery system so that the sleeves are sequentially positioned on the stuffing tube so that a radial flange on the end of the sleeve opposite the discharge end thereof abuts a radial flange on the stuffing tube to automatically insure that the discharge end of the sleeve and tube register with each other.
After the preloaded sleeve is in place on the stuffing tube, the tube is conventionally moved longitudinally forwardly towards a twisting and linking mechanism. When the casing is filled, the tube with the sleeve thereon is longitudinally moved away from the twisting and linking mechanism and the sleeve automatically drops from the loading system to a suitable container for reuse without having to be handled by the machine operator. The loading system thereupon delivers another casing loaded sleeve to position of alignment with the stuffing tube so that the process can be repeated.
While the foregoing method and apparatus of preloading sleeves with casings substantially enhances the filling of casings with emulsion, the present invention facilitates the process even further by providing a method and means for loading a plurality of sleeves bearing casings on a sausage making machine and serially moving them to a sausage filling position immediately after the casing on a preceding sleeve has been filled. The method specifically provides for placing the preloaded sleeves on a feeder mechanism and selectively and sequentially moving the sleeves into registering position with the discharge end of an emulsion stuffing tube; sequentially moving the stuffing tube into each of the sleeves and extruding emulsion through the stuffing tube into the casing mounted on the sleeve until the casing is slidably removed from the sleeve caused in part by the movement of emulsion entering the casing.
The apparatus has a fixture suitably movably mounted on the machine with a plurality of preloaded sleeves thereon for sequential movement for selective alignment of the sleeves with the stuffing tube for sequential filling of the casings with emulsion.